Cleanup your mess

Cured epoxy has an amine blush. A coating of amines that new epoxy doesn't bond very well to.

Every time something is epoxied those amines need to come off. I sand, or abrade the surface in any way possible

Putting it all Together

Megan assisted me in the next step of the restoration, in which we glued up the pieces under the mast step.

There were multiple pieces of both plywood and fiberglass that were numbered to aid in installing them in the correct order.

Layers of plywood and fiberglass were stuck together with epoxy and the wood was fitted around the three through bolts and then the layers of plywood and fiberglass were clamped together around the through bolts.

The area under and around the mast step was prepared to lessen the mess from the wet fiberglass and plywood as it was applied layer up layer. You want to do as many layers as possible together at the same time as you can save time by not having to repeat steps of the preparation process.

To the right the attempt to keep clothes as free from epoxy as possible...unfortunately the epoxy won out and the long sleeve shirt now has some very stiff arms.

Below the finished product with the clamp holding it all together while it cured. The clamp had to be fashioned just for this job as a regular clamp wouldn't fit.